Author 



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Title 



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Cla88.i]0.33.Z... 

BookS>sJl.4:. 



Imprint 



18—47372-1 OPO 



HOW AND WHEN TO COLLECT 

White Pine Seed 




This and next year's crop of cones. Large ones 
mature and ready for picking. 

By F. W, RANK 
Massachusetts Stat£.,JForester 

Room 7, State House 
BOSTON, MASS., - - U. S. A. 



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^^Z^^A 




The Staminate (male) and Pistillate (female) flowers 
of the White Pine. These appear a year before 
the cones develop ; hence it is an easy matter to 
determine a year in advance of a seed crop. 

aift 

. . 08 



1? 

'xH^^ AND WHEN TO COLLECT 
J^ 5 WHITE PINE SEED 

npHE white pine {Pinus Strohus) is one 
of the most common trees found in 
Massachusetts and New England, and is of 
great economic and aesthetic value, yet the 
writer finds that little is known about its 
method of propagation. 

Even teachers and those who have studied 
botany and nature study, and again farmers 
and men who have worked in the woods 
or at the lumber industry all their lives, 
seem never to have given the matter any 
thought or definite observation. 

White pine is grown from seed only; 

it does not sprout from the roots when cut, 

as our hard woods. In replanting 

White pine . J i J J 1 J 

^ our waste and abandoned lands 

from 

seed only with white pine, the first step is to 

collect the seed. Some evidently 

think pine trees come from nothing, or were 



created, perhaps, but this is not the way 
Nature does things. If we expect an agri- 
cultural crop, the kind of grain desired is 
planted ; just so with growing the white pine. 
Pine seed comes from the cones which 
grow upon the pine trees. The cones are 
^ ^ more abundant upon trees of 

Seed ^ 

comes twenty years of age or more, and 

from pine ^^g located near the top of the 

cones 

tree. Old single pasture pines, 
or those growing in clumps or along the 
edges of the forest, and more or less limbed, 
commonly called "cabbage pines," are usu- 
ally the greater seed bearers. These trees, 
also, are the easier to collect the cones from. 
It requires two seasons for the white pine 
cones to mature. The embryo cone, which 
^^^ is the pistillate (female) blossom 

seasons of the pine, forms in the spring of 
for seeds j.}^g year, at which time it is fer- 

to mature •!• i i i i i 

tilized, and can be seen through- 
out that whole season as a small, upright. 



so-called "Christmas candle," an inch or so 
long. When vegetation starts the second 
season, however, the white pine cone takes 
on activity, and by August it reaches full 
size, which varies from four to six inches in 
length. During this time the seeds form at 
the base and under the scales. The cones 
remain green until the latter part of August 
or fore part of September, depending upon 
the nature of the season, when they mature 
and turn brown. When mature, the cones, 
while still hanging on the tree, open up 
(spread out their scales) at the first dry 
period, thus allowing the seeds which have 
been concealed to drop out. Each pine 
seed is provided with a delicate wing, in 
some respects resembling the wing 
of a bee, and this assists the seed 

scattered 

by wings Very much in its distribution. 

With scarcely any wind the seeds 

travel for some distance before they reach 

the ground, so with a strong gale at time of 



shedding, one can imagine how far they 
may be distributed. The finding of isolated 
pine seedlings is often accounted for in this 
way. The prevailing wind at time the cones 
are opening governs the territory seeded. 

If we desire to collect white pine seed, it 

is important that the cones be collected 

before they open and lose their 

cones seed. Thi? may be done in 

before jj^g Jj^tt^j. pg^^-j ^f jj^g month of 

they open . • i r i 

August, any time before the 

cones open. 
There are various methods of collecting 
the cones, but the best advice is to get them 

somehow. Picking with a long 
Methods ladder is one way ; another, and 

of collect- , .,, 1 • ir 

ing cones ^^^ '^"at Will rccommend itselr, 
is to find out where lumbering is 
going on, and collect the cones as they fell 
the trees. 

When connected with the New Hamp- 
shire College the writer tried a number of 



ways of solving this problem. One which 
worked very nicely was to send about four 
or five boys up the trees to pick the cones 
and throw them over the branches to the 
ground, while another one remained upon 
the ground and gathered them into bags. 
The cones may again be gathered by pick- 
ing and putting directly in a bag which is 
attached to the shoulder, similar to the man- 
ner of picking apples. Old gluten or feed 
bags, inexpensive and commonly available 
about farmers' barns, answer very well for 
this purpose. 

The number or quantity of cones that 

can be gathered in a day will vary as to 

the yield per tree, method of 

Mother , . . , . 

seed trees gathermg, etc. As white pme 
box-boards throughout New Eng- 
land are in great demand, and at a relatively 
high price, even the old " cabbage pines," 
full of limbs, a few years ago considered 
valueless, are at present rapidly going to the 



sawmill. These old trees in the past have 
been the great seed producers and mother 
tr^es of our present forest stands. If they 
are destroyed, however, where must we look 
for our future pines? 

One man, with two assistants, in a seed 
year spent nearly two days in cutting down 
about 50 pine trees and picking 
example *^^ cones from them, and gathered 
in collect- two wagon loads, some 50 bush- 
mg pine ^j^ before the cones were open. 
When they were dried out and 
opened, he had fully 100 bushels of cones 
and nearly 5 bushels of uncleaned seed. 
His method of drying was to spread them 
out where the sun could shine on them, rak- 
ing the pile over often, covering them with 
a canvas at night and in rainy weather. If 
the cones get wet they close up. It took 
in this case two weeks to get the seeds 
from the cones. 




White pine cone with scales open and seed gone. 
White pine needles grow in clusters of five. 



10 

After the cones are gathered it is not 
necessary that the seed be secured from $ 
them at once. They may be | 
ecuring (Jeposited in any dry place, where ii 
cones squirrels or mice are kept from Ii^ 

them, and the seed thrashed out j 
later. The practice of using a bag to put 
the cones in is convenient, for as they open : 
up the bag can be flailed at odd times and i 
the seed falls out into the bottom and is I 
readily collected. 

Should one have a greenhouse, it is usu- 
ally available about the time the cones are 
ripe, and if they are placed here for a short 
time, avoiding any moisture for a few days, 
the high temperature will open the cones 
very quickly. The writer has made it a 
practice simply to place the bags in ther 
greenhouse, and then turn and flail them occa- ii 
sionally, when the seed is easily separated,' 
A hotbed or cold-frame sash could be made 
to serve the same purpose on a small scale. 



11 

There are probably many other ingenious 
ways of extracting the seed from the cones 
hat will occur to different ones which will 
DC equally good. 

White pine seed has averaged in price in 

recent years from $1.50 to $4.50 a pound. 

During the spring of 1907 the 

^"^^ , price in large quantities was $3.75 

3f seed •^ I 

a pound. 
White pine seed if given normal condi- 
tions, not too moist or excessively dry, re- 
tains its vitality for several years. 
Vitality yj^g reason that the seed has been 
lo/yelrs SO high is that the demand has 
increased very rapidly in this 
country lately, and the few dealers have 
practically made their own prices. 
• It is hoped that this brief pamphlet will 
assist in calling attention to the importance 
of gathering white pine seed each 

Important » , ^ . . [ . . ,„, 

to collect year, when it is truiting. We 
'®^®<^ should ultimately consider the im- 



12 

portance of harvesting this crop, just the 
same as any other. 

The writer would consider it a great 

benefit to New England, and Massachusetts 

in particular, if enough people 

Pine seed. 

campaign could be interested so that a regu 
lar pine seed campaign could be 

kept up until the seeds of this most inpor- 

tant forest tree could be purchased at 50 

cents a pound, and it is believed it can be 

done. 

With pine and other forest tree seeds in 

plenty, at reasonable prices, people generally 
will begin to start small nursery 

Beginnings i^gjg [j^ j}^gif gardens and fields, 

forestry which will in tum give us seed- 
lings and transplants at a much 
more rational forestry basis than they can 
be obtained at present. 

There are from 20,000 to 30,000 white 
pine seeds in a pound, and it is customary fon 
nurserymen to plant this amount upon a bea 



13 

4 feet wide and 50 feet long. Under nor- 
mal conditions, which will be described in 
a forthcoming circular, a person 
^°-3;'°°° ought to raise 10,000 to I 5,000 

jeeds in ° 

I pound seedlings on this area. With 
the above data, and knowing the 
distance apart that pines are set, usually 
D by 6 feet, one can figure out for himself 
he cost of growing his own stock of plants. 
It has been the endeavor of the writer to 
ell in a precise and practical way just how 
and when to collect the white 
Reciothmg pjjjg seed. It now remains to be 
ands ^^^^ how many we can get to do 

something in this line. All per- 
-sons interested in reclothing our waste lands, 
and in establishing economic and aesthetic 
forestry conditions throughout this Common- 
wealth and New England, will find that 
practising and impressing the simple begin- 
nings of forestry on others will go far toward 
an ultimate solution. 



14 

Expensive forestry seeds and seedlings 
are the greatest drawbacks at the present 
time to beginning forestry work. 
Reason j^^^ ^^ remedy it. There an 

for high •' 

prices few seedsmen who handle fores 

tree seeds, and the comparative!} 
little demand until now has made the busi- 
ness an uncertain one, and hence the prices 
are high. 

If white pine sells for even $2 a pound, 
no one cares to sow broadcast live pounds , 
per acre, as is recommended by some 
seedsmen, as the expense makes the opera- 
tion anything but practical. No one cares 
to use live or ten dollars' worth of seed on 
land that is in itself almost valueless. Col- 
lecting the seed one's self, however, obviates 
this difficulty and makes the conditions 'more 
favorable. 

There is much inquiry as to how often 
white pine produces seed. Somehow the 
Seed year idea is quite firmly established in 



15 

the minds of many that a seed year once 
in seven is a fixed law. From observation 
there seems to be no definite regularity in 
Nature. A white pine, like other trees, if 
it yields a maximum crop one year, is not 
likely to produce another heavy crop in from 
three to seven, depending upon the seasons 
and other conditions. The writer has seen 
two heavy crops in one locality only four 
years apart. Examples are not uncommon, 
also, where a pine tree may be fruiting a 
fair number of cones and at the same time 
have embryo cones which are to fruit the 
following season. 

Not all sections of the State are likely to 
seed the same year, although they may. 
By inquiry it is found that one section may 
have a heavy crop, while another may have 
none. In this way seed usually can be had 
from some section each year. 

The seeds of spruce, hemlock, and other 
evergreens are collected in like manner as 



16 

Seed of ^^^ P^^^- Of course, they vary 
other in size of cone and seed and 

evergreens .• £ . v 

time or matunty. 
Deciduous trees, or hard woods, are also 
easily grown from seed, and when one gets 
interested in collecting and grow- 

Hardwoods • . i i •. • •. • l 

from seed ^^§ white pme, it IS only a 
step toward later interest and 
pleasure in the whole forestry question. 

We need to cultivate as a people a great 
love for out-of-door life, and there is noth- 
ing that awakens interest and a 
, „ ^ love for Nature herself more than 

and Nature 

the forests and their associations. 
At a later time a companion booklet on 
methods of planting and caring for seedlings 
will be issued. 

F. W. RANE, 

State Forester 

State House, Boston, Mass., 
August 1, 1907 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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